Celebrating the best of fashion and tech! The Style Coalition has been celebrating fashion brands for innovation and influence in the social media fields with their Fashion 2.0 Awards for six years now. When they first started, many large brands were still struggling with even attempting to use tech in their marketing efforts.
The Fashion 2.0 Awards celebrate the best of tech and social media in fashion
Fast forward to 2015, the fashion brands recognized at the awards are leading social media innovation and tech brands are moving into style. The ever-changing world of tech and social media, the categories have changed over the years to reflect the most influential platforms. Pinterest and wearable tech were not represented at the first awards, but I can't imagine the fashion landscape without them now.Multi-year host Robert Verdi always manages to be funny and topical. He is one of the few "style" entertainers with actual fashion industry cred. He addressed speculation on a possible return to E's Fashion Police by simply acknowledging that saying it should have been called the "Joan Rivers Show" because only she could do it. Also, he noted how sad he was that she has passed because of "all the plastic that was now released into the environment" (Joan would have been proud of that one!) He closed with a gesture to accompany his pitch for a F*CK Indiana campaign in response to their discriminatory legislation.
Sports Illustrated model Hanna Ferguson, Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza, editors Danica Lo, supermodel Carol Alt were among the many presenters. Sam Edelman was the keynote speaker. Brands like Opening Ceremony won for best Instagram. Kate Spade NY won for their Pinterest content. Tory Burch, a no-show won for best wearable tech. Marc Jacobs won for their "Cast Me Marc" online campaign. Rebecca Minkoff, one of the leaders in social media for fashion won the award for both Interactive Retail and Top Innovator.
I like particularly like the category of Digital Philanthropy Award. Calling out and recognizing the collaboration of your favorite fashion brand and a worthy cause will hopefully be the biggest trend of all. Dressember's work with Kate Spade was the winner here. Dressember works with the International Justice Mission to rescue the victims of slavery and violent oppression. Women were asked to wear a dress every day in December to raise funds and awareness.
The Style Coalition was founded by Yuli Ziv. They work with influencers and brands to collaborate on projects together. I worked with them while I was at Hello La Mode to have bloggers show how they used the site. They might not have been the biggest network, but we had the best engagement through their influencers.
For any fashion brand that still hasn't realized that their marketing strategy cannot survive without tech and social media, the pure success of the brands represented at the 6th Annual Fashion 2.0 Awards has ended your argument. Check out all of their winners on their website.
photos by Mariana Leung
